Australia yesterday announced plans to explore concepts such as firing salt into clouds and covering swathes of water with a thin layer of film in a bid to save the embattled Great Barrier Reef.
The UNESCO World Heritage site, about the size of Japan or Italy, has been reeling from two straight years of bleaching as sea temperatures rise because of climate change.
Experts have warned that the 2,300km-long area could have suffered irreparable damage.
While the government has pledged to tackle climate change — the greatest threat to the world’s largest living structure — there has also been a push to explore short-term measures to buy the reef some time.
Canberra in January offered A$2 million (US$1.47 million) for innovative ideas to protect the site, which is also under pressure from farming runoff, development and the predatory crown-of-thorns starfish.
Six schemes selected out of a total of 69 submissions are to be tested to see if they are feasible.
One selected concept is cloud brightening, in which salt crystals harvested from seawater are fired into clouds, making them more reflective and therefore deflecting solar rays back into space.
The idea might seem wacky, but the proposal has real potential, Australian Institute of Marine Science researcher David Mead said.
Another idea is a biodegradable “sun shield,” in which an ultra-thin film containing light-reflecting particles covers some reef waters to protect corals from heat stress.
Other short-listed projects include mass producing coral larvae with the aid of 3D-printed surfaces to support new growth and large-scale harvesting and relocation of larvae.
The experimental commissions came as Canberra yesterday said it was updating its A$2 billion “Reef 2050” plan — unveiled in 2015 — to protect the reef with further measures to improve water quality.
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